A Bad News Day

https://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2014/12/a-bad-news-day

At the risk of grouping together three unrelated items...

1. President Obama has struck a deal with communist Cuba to ease American sanctions there, which will have the likely effect of enriching and further entrenching the Castro brothers. It's not that Mr. Obama doesn't believe in sanctions; he just tightened them on Russia. It's that he doesn't support them on Cuba. The key, in my view, to understanding this came in his remark in his speech: "let us leave behind the legacy of both colonialism and communism." This relates to Dinesh D'Souza's article on Obama's father's post-colonialism. Now, you can argue that American policy hasn't freed Cuba. On the other hand, America's policy of trade and diplomatic relations with Communist China hasn't freed China, either. A lot of the sanctions on Cuba are entrenched in law that President Obama can't waive without Congressional action. It will be interesting to see whether that action is forthcoming. I can see the arguments on both sides of it.

2. Governor Cuomo lets it be known that he'll ban fracking for natural gas in the state of New York, claiming public health concerns.

3. According to a report in the Harvard Crimson, Harvard's dining halls have removed the labels from SodaStream machines and promised not to buy any more after Islamic and Palestinian Arab groups and their sympathizers complained that the machines were offensive because the company has a factory in the West Bank.

All in all, it's a grim set of developments. Anyone who thought we were out of the woods once Republicans won the midterm elections definitely has another think coming.